The neural correlates of hedonic and eudaimonic happiness: An fMRI study

Tommaso Costa; Angelo Carlo Suardi; Matteo Diano; Franco Cauda; Sergio Duca; Maria Luisa Rusconi; Igor Sotgiu

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2019.134491

The neural correlates of hedonic and eudaimonic happiness: An fMRI study

Neurosci Lett. 2019 Nov 1:712:134491. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2019.134491. Epub 2019 Sep 10.

Authors

Tommaso Costa¹, Angelo Carlo Suardi², Matteo Diano³, Franco Cauda⁴, Sergio Duca⁴, Maria Luisa Rusconi², Igor Sotgiu²

Affiliations

¹ GCS fMRI, Koelliker Hospital, Corso G. Ferraris, 247, 10124, Turin, Italy; FocusLab, University of Turin, Via Verdi, 10, 10124, Turin, Italy; Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi, 10, 10124, Turin, Italy. Electronic address: tommaso.costa@unito.it.
² Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, Piazzale S.Agostino, 2, 24129, Bergamo, Italy.
³ GCS fMRI, Koelliker Hospital, Corso G. Ferraris, 247, 10124, Turin, Italy; Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi, 10, 10124, Turin, Italy; Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, CoRPS - Center of Research on Psychology in Somatic Diseases, Tilburg University, 5000LE Tilburg, the Netherlands.
⁴ GCS fMRI, Koelliker Hospital, Corso G. Ferraris, 247, 10124, Turin, Italy; FocusLab, University of Turin, Via Verdi, 10, 10124, Turin, Italy; Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi, 10, 10124, Turin, Italy.

PMID: 31518675
DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2019.134491

Abstract

The current study investigated the neural correlates of both hedonic and eudaimonic happiness. Seventeen students underwent fMRI while cued with written sentences describing three classes of life events: Hedonic events (HE), eudaimonic events (EE) and neutral events (NE). We asked participants to imagine and empathize with all these event types. Results showed that, compared to NE, both HE and EE activated a network involving frontal, temporal and parietal regions, as well as subcortical structures. However, in the HE/EE comparison, HE showed enhanced activity in frontal medial/middle regions and anterior cingulate cortex; by contrast, EE showed increased activity in the right precentral gyrus. Findings suggest that hedonic and eudaimonic happiness activate similar neural correlates. However, both kinds of happiness are also associated with distinctive brain areas serving distinctive functions.

Keywords: Anterior cingulate cortex; Eudaimonic happiness; Hedonic happiness; Imagination task; Right precentral gyrus; fMRI.

MeSH terms

Adult
Brain / diagnostic imaging*
Female
Functional Neuroimaging
Happiness*
Humans
Imagination / physiology*
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Young Adult